Hymn #503: O Savior, Let Me Walk with You | First Congregational Church

Washington Gladden (1836-1911) wrote this poem for a devotional column, “The Still Hour,” and published it in his magazine Sunday Afternoon (1879). He never intended that this poem be converted into a hymn, but it was first published as such one year later in Charles H. Richards’s Songs of Christian Praise.

Washington Gladden, an outspoken minister and writer on social-justice issues, served churches in New York, Massachusetts, and finally in Columbus, Ohio. He was moderator of the National Council of Congregational Churches from 1904 to 1907 and associate editor of The Pilgrim Hymnal (1904).

H. Percy Smith (1825-1898) composed the tune MARYTON in 1874 for the hymn “Sun of My Soul,” by John Keble, with which it appeared in Church Hymns with Tunes, edited by Arthur Sullivan. It was Washington Gladden’s preferred tune for his hymn.

H. Percy Smith was born in December 1825 on the island of Malta. A minister in the Anglican Church, he served churches in England until he was appointed chaplain at Cannes, France, and, in 1892, canon of Gibraltar. Smith died at Bournemouth, Hampshire, England, on January 28, 1898.